Increasing Concern about Access to Higher Education, and Matriculation

Receiving a college education, developing one’s competencies and continuing lifelong learning is consistently met with fear as the cost of education continues to rise. Educational institutions are combating these high costs with distance education. In a study, 69.1 percent of chief learning officers indicated that online learning is very important to their long term strategies (Allen & Seaman, 2013). The number of learners taking at least one online course is increasing; on the other hand, face-to-face learning in higher education has slowed for the first time in 10 years (Allen & Seaman, 2013). Daniel de Vise, of the Washington Post, cites the number of enrolled non-traditional students as 40 percent (2011, para. 1). How will faculty successfully facilitate this inter-generational mixture of learners: matured (x-1944), baby boomer (1945-1964), generation X (1965-1978) and generation Y (1979-1995) (Burton, 2007)?